Student life means always being under pressure–but do you know that taking a moment to deal with your stress can make a huge impact on your academics and productivity?   

Have you ever found yourself reading and when you get to the bottom of the page you realize you haven’t taken anything in yet?  Do you ever lose focus when you’re trying to finish an assignment?  Listen: it is all connected to Well-being and YU.  

In this episode, host Clifton A. Grant interviews SCHW counsellor Marcie Campbell, a registered psychotherapist and social worker. Marcie shares tips on how to recognize the signs of harmful stress and teaches us some ways that we can manage our stress levels for greater well-being and academic success. 

We also hear from upper-year York University students who tell us about why University life is stressful and what tips they’ve learned along their journey to both manage stress and thrive in life as a university student. 

Key Take-aways from this episode: 

• Stress is normal and natural, but sometimes it can become unmanageable. Everyone is experiencing it; you are not alone. It will not be there forever and there are a lot of resources that can help you to learn how to manage your stress.
• It is beneficial to check in with yourself to recognize when stress is affecting you before it impacts other aspects of your life. Put a reminder on your phone and regularly look for the physical signs of stress. Excessive tiredness, headaches, jaw clenching, neck and shoulder tension, and getting sick more often are some of the symptoms you can look for.
• To manage your stress level, start by taking care of your basic needs, ensuring you are hydrated, eating well and being compassionate with yourself. It is also important to connect with others by developing and nurturing social relationships.
• Part of "adulting" is developing time management skills, organization and learning how to set boundaries. These skills will also help you build your stress resiliency.

Resources from this episode:

All of these resources are free and available to students at York University.

Student Counselling, Health and Well-being (SCHW): https://counselling.students.yorku.ca/ 

• Workshops 
• Mindful movement 
• Sleep 101 
• Sexual health and relation with social media 
• Walk-in counselling sessions (same-day sessions available) 
• Therapy 

Learning skills workshop: https://www.yorku.ca/scld/learning-skills/ 

• Time management 
• Prepping exam 
• Managing academic stress 

Career Center: https://careers.yorku.ca/ 

• Speak to career peers 
• Network opportunities 
• Job postings 

Clubs and Groups: https://yorku.campuslabs.ca/engage/

• Over 350 ways to connect with others at York University

York International: https://yorkinternational.yorku.ca/ 

• Coffee breaks to get out and connected 

York Federation of Students (YFS): https://www.yfs.ca/ 

• Good food box: organic fresh produce at a low cost 
• Wellness Center 

York Recreation: https://reconline.yorkulions.ca/ 

• Free fitness classes online 
• Bootcamps 
• Meditation

Clifton A Grant: Well-Being and YU would like to acknowledge many indigenous nations have long standing relationships with the territories where York university campuses are located, which precede the establishment of York University. Our podcast is produced and recorded on the traditional territory of many indigenous nations. The area known as Tkaranto has been caretaken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Huron Wendat. It is now home to many First Nation, Inuit and Metis communities. We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish with One spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.

Hey, YU. How stressed are you right now? Let's talk about it. You are listening to Well-Being and YU, a podcast created by students for the York University community and beyond. Each episode, we highlight a topic that is important to the YU community. We share resources and host conversations about the relationship between Well-Being and You. I am your host, Clifton A Grant.

I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but will you join us for this very important conversation?

What year of studies are you in? And what program are you in?

Student: I'm in my 6th year of English and concurrent education.

Clifton: Do you have a lot of experience?

Student: Hope so.

Student: I'm in my fourth year in media arts film.

Student: It's actually my fourth year at York, but I'm entering my first year in the teaching program.

Student: So I'm in my Third year, and I'm in the sociology program as well as the concurrent education program.

Student: I'm in my second year of IT BCom. But I do engineering research on the side.

Student: I'm a fourth-year computer science student.

Clifton A Grant: What would you say is the most stressful thing about being in university?

Student: Probably getting everything done and managing your time.

Student: I think part of it is doing all of your assignments on time, but also remembering that your teachers want you to pass.

Student: I think the most stressful thing is adapting to change, especially with the pandemic.

Student: I'd say the most stressful thing is definitely keeping track of everything you have to do. Balancing work life, social life, school life. Yeah. So, overall, just balancing.

Student: Oh, time management, for sure. Just making sure you're not distracted and getting the work you got to do on time

Clifton A Grant: being able to commit to everything you've already signed up for. Is that true?

Marcie is a counselor, psychotherapist, and social worker at York University. In this interview, she taught me how we can recognize the signs of stress and the ways that we can manage our stress, improving our overall well-being and academic success. I really hope you can join us on this journey. A few mindful minutes can make a difference. So, let's dive into our conversation with Marcie.

Ladies and gentlemen, today we have Marcie Campbell, who is a counselor and counseling supervisor for student counseling, health and well-being. It's a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Marcy. How are you doing?

Marcie: It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me. This is my first podcast.

Clifton: Oh, it is, yes.

Marcie: So, this is very exciting for me.

Clifton: So, you'll always remember us. Exactly.

Marcie: Always, yes.

Clifton: And you are one of our first guests as we launch this exciting new venture. So just a few questions. What we have for you, for Marcie, for the students and people in the York, university community at large. So we really want to know. You've worked with students at York for a number of years. Can you tell us some of the things that you've learned about students and their stressors in that time?

Marcie: Absolutely. So, some of the main stressors, first of all, of course, is academic stress. We have those readings. We have exams. We have coursework, especially if you're a first-year student. Now, it's a whole lot of independence. Nobody's telling you have to get this assignment done, right?

Clifton: Uh, exactly.

Marcie: You have to do it. Um, then throw in Covid.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: So, you're looking at virtual classes, in person classes. Do I need to be vaccinated? Do I not need to be vaccinated? All of that just weighs on you. Followed, by family stress, so a lot of families have expectations for their children to do well in school, to get certain degrees, to choose the majors that they want. So it's really difficult because students are starting to become their own person, but they have their families telling them, I want you to do this, but they're like, I kind of want to do this.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: And, uh, being able to tell their families that or their parents that, but also to fulfill their expectations and make their parents proud, that causes a lot of stress.

Clifton: And you also have the independence stage of your life now, right? You're going into an independent stage where you're really trying to sort of grow your own wings and expand your horizons, and that can also add to all the stress. Am I correct?

Marcie: Absolutely. I have a colleague who calls it, we're adulting.

Clifton: Adulting. That is a great word.

Clifton: Yes. I love that word. Adulting.

Marcie: I love it, too. You're adulting.

Clifton: I've never heard that before.

Marcie: Comes with so many stressors, right? Financial stressors,independent stressors, relationship stressors, future stressors, career goals.

Clifton: Wow, that's amazing. Adulting.

Clifton: You don't mind if I use that, do you?

Marcie: Not at all.

Clifton: Okay. Adulting.

Marcie: I stole it from my colleagues. Michael, I'm giving you credit.

Clifton: We'll be using adulting. So, something I'm personally curious about is how do I recognize myself and other people individually when we're stressed? When we have anxiety on a daily basis, you'll hear a lot of times during high stress times, exam times, and things like that. People are stressed, but how do they really know that they're stressed?

Marcie: Yeah. So the first thing is you really want to start checking in with yourself. We often don't do that. We are on autopilot. We need to get through the day. We need to sit at night, all night, cramming for that exam, so we don't check in with our bodies, our thoughts, our minds. So spending that time, I even suggest putting it on your phone, an alarm on your phone, to say, hey, stop. Let's check in with myself.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: And let's go inward. What's going on? How do I feel? Is my heart rate up? Are my shoulders up to my ears? Am I clenching my thing is clenching my jaw.

Clifton: Wow. Okay.

Marcie: And I end up getting headaches from that.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: And I'm feeling tired, and I have a headache, and I'm like, what's going on? And I start to massage my jaw, and I'm like, uh oh, that's it. I'm clenching. I'm stressed. Something's going on.

Clifton: Okay.

Marcie: Tight muscles, things like that.

Clifton: You want alarm bells right there?

Marcie: Absolutely. Um, other things are like, if you are getting sick more often, you're getting stressed, your immune system is just not working. It's being taxed. So, you're getting sick more often, getting more colds.

Clifton: There's a reason behind it.

Marcie: Yeah.

Clifton: We attended a symposium earlier this year, and one of the things that really struck with me is the keynote speaker said, spend some time with yourself in the morning before you start a very busy day. Like, get up a little earlier and just check in with yourself.

Marcie: Yeah. Five minutes or something, just to check in. Sit with yourself, see what's going on, what you're feeling, what's your body saying to you, what your emotions are saying.

Clifton: And that can lead to a very productive day or unproductive day if you're not doing that. That's something that really struck with.

Marcie: Yeah. So that's great.

Clifton: So York is an amazingly diverse campus. Can you tell me about how stress might look or feel different across the student body among our diverse people that are on the York campus?

Marcie: Yeah. Stress can. I mean, stress is a natural part of a modern-day world. So we can have good stress, which can be motivating, get our goals done for the day. But when we have bad stress, that's when it consumes us. We're not able to cope and manage.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: And things that kind of come out of that are. We have sleep disturbances. Either we're sleeping too much or not enough. We're anxious, we feel depressed. again, we have illnesses. We get colds or sickness a lot. We have headaches. We have a lot of anxious thoughts that come in to our mind.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: we might procrastinate.

Clifton: That's a big one. That's a huge one.

Marcie: Procrastination is a huge one.

Clifton: You're almost sort of frozen in your own body.

Marcie: Yeah. We want to be perfect. We want to get these things right and we're frozen. We don't concentrate very well. We can't focus. we isolate ourselves.

Clifton: Wow.

Marcie: We don't eat well, or we eat too much, like comfort food. unhealthy eating too. We're not moving our bodies. We're, just staying inside and not connecting with anyone. Or sometimes we fall down the rabbit hole of social media.

Clifton: Right, exactly. Watching YouTube.

Marcie: So that's how stress shows up with you.

Clifton: Someone once told me, also, if you are studying or reading and not really registering the information in your cognitive brain, then you know that something is going on there, especially if you've read pages, if that makes sense. Does that make sense to you?

Marcie: Absolutely. It's kind of like you're dissociated.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: Or you're not being mindful. So you want to be present in the moment, but you have so many things going on, so many thoughts in your head that you can't retain any information.

Clifton: Right. So that's a huge warning sign, especially here. And school year goes by very quickly. So, you definitely want to recognize it before it becomes a serious problem.

Marcie: For sure.

Clifton: So, let's talk about some remedies. Let's talk about some of the ways, to resolve some of these issues. So, what can students do to manage their stress levels? Like, what do you recommend? Okay, so we've now identified it. Okay. So now we want to sort of resolve it if we can.

Marcie: I think the first thing that we need to think about is going back to our basic needs. Right. We need to eat healthy, we need to do some sleep hygiene, make sure we're sleeping well. So turning our screens off 2 hours before we go to bed.

Clifton: I love that.

Marcie: Yes. Only using our beds for sleep and fun stuff.

Clifton: Exactly.

Marcie: But, not using it as your workstation.

Clifton: Right. Or your phone station.

Marcie: Or your phone station. Yeah. We want to hydrate, we want to move our bodies, connect with others, but also, we want to engage in self-care, doing things like, being compassionate to ourselves. Being careful with social media. Being careful. Or doing hobbies, being creative, cleaning, our space. Sometimes it's just nice to have a clean room or clean apartment.

Clifton: Exactly. I know I'm very productive when I'm organized. So organization, I think, is something that's very important. Right.

Marcie: Yes.

Clifton: As opposed to disorganization can cause, added stress to the situation.

Marcie: Absolutely. And I think boundaries are really important.

Clifton: Wow.

Marcie: A lot of times we feel like we don't have permission to have boundaries.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: But we have to say no sometimes. And we have to prioritize our mental health, how we're doing, and be able to have those boundaries with people who are maybe taking too much from us or projects that are taking too much from us and really, um, prioritizing our self-care.

Clifton: Right. I know as the word that I love. Adultifying.

Marcie: Yes. Adulting.

Clifton: Adulting. Sorry. Adulting.

Marcie: Yes.

Clifton: Is learning to say no.

Marcie: Absolutely.

Clifton: And setting those boundaries. Right.

Marcie: Yes.

Clifton: And if you're going to quickly talk about the importance of time management,

Marcie: Time management is extremely important. because we just get on autopilot or we just get lost in thinking, okay, if I focus like 5 hours on this studying for this exam, even though I'm tired and whatever else, and I don't prioritize other things, then we're not going to, like you said, we're not going to absorb anything.

Clifton: Exactly.

Marcie: So I often tell students staying up and doing that all nighter, you're not going to absorb that information. So you have to manage time to sleep, manage time to eat, to move your body, to meet with friends, but also to study,also to go to class, go to work. There's a lot of things that are going on in students’ lives.

Clifton: Right, exactly.

Marcie: So it's really important to learn how to manage that. And in time management, to include self-care.

Clifton: Very powerful. Yeah, exactly. And that gets to the overall theme of balance.

Marcie: Absolutely.

Clifton: Right. How important that is. I just loved how you sort of threw a lot of the things are family, work, school, well-being.

Marcie: Exactly. Your relationship.

Clifton: Relationships, yes, family. Doing something fun too, also.

Clifton: going for walks.

Marcie: Yeah. Being out in nature.

Clifton: Yes, being out in nature too. Yeah, exactly. Especially even in December, January when it's cold, there are days that you can actually still connect with nature.

Marcie: Oh, I think that can be great times when you can go skating or go sledding or make the best out of the Canadian winters.

Clifton: Actually, some of my favorite moments is go cross country skiing because you. Get to see the beauty it is. Isn't that just breathtaking, Marcie?

Marcie: It's gorgeous. Yeah. I remember once taking seeds and being able to feed little chipmunks while I was cross country skiing.

Clifton: That is great.

Marcie: It was wonderful. Yeah, it was beautiful.

Marcie: That is a very great idea. Just a couple more questions. what other resources are there to help students with their stress on campus?

Marcie: Okay. Well, learning skills, is an amazing place to go, especially for time management. They have workshops on time management. They have workshops on preparing for exams. They have workshops on managing academic stress. So, they're a wonderful resource in terms of helping you with time management and all that kind of stuff. the career center is amazing. To help you, you can speak to career peers. You can have network opportunities, career development webinars, job postings. There are numerous clubs and groups at York campus. York is a commuter school. One of the stressors that I find a lot of students talk about is being unable to meet people.

Clifton: Right, exactly.

Marcie: Feeling very isolated, especially international students. So, joining a club that you have interest in, joining a group, York International has these amazing coffee breaks where you get to meet people.

Clifton: They do, yes.

Marcie: So, you want to do things like that just to get yourself out and connected.

Clifton: And I've heard New York has like, 350 clubs.

Marcie: Yeah, they have many, many clubs. I was astounded by how many clubs they have. the York Federation of Students, also YFS.

Clifton: YFS yes.

Marcie: Is really helpful. They have, this amazing project called the Good Food Box, which I never heard of, but they provide organic, fresh produce on campus at a low cost. I hope it's still running.

Clifton: Okay.

Marcie: They also have the wellness center to look out for. York recreation, since COVID has been providing free fitness classes.

Clifton: Wow. I did not know that.

Marcie: Virtually. Yes. So that’s, amazing. They do yoga, too.

Clifton: I was just going to ask you about yoga. Okay.

Marcie: Yoga, boot camps, meditations, and obviously our place. Student counseling, health, and well-being. We have workshops, we have trauma informed yoga, mindful movement, sleep 101, navigating mental health resources, sexual health, relationship with social media.

Clifton: Okay.

Marcie: Nutrition. We also have walk in counseling sessions. If you want, like a one off, you come in and you have, like, a 50-minute session with a counselor. You can book it the same day.

Clifton: That sounds very therapeutic.

Marcie: You can have short term, ongoing therapy with the counselor. Of course. We have process groups, we have support groups, and we have a skills workshop.

Clifton: Oh, there's a skills workshop on stress.

Marcie: Yes.

Clifton: On our hot topic today.

Marcie: Exactly. And you can access that on our website.

Clifton: And you said that they can walk in, so where would they go?

Marcie: For students they go to the Bennett center on the first floor. And, yeah, you just walk in. Or you visit our website, and you can book an appointment same day. I think it opens at 8:45.

Clifton: Okay.

Marcie: So, you can book, either a virtual appointment or, an in person walk in for that day.

Clifton: And that's student counseling, Health, and well-being.

Marcie: yeah. In the Bennett center.

Clifton: In the Bennett center. SCHW

Marcie: I know. We had a name change. It was SCLD. Now it's SCHW. So, I'm just getting used to it myself.

Clifton: Exactly.

Marcie: York is an acronym. Is an acronym University.

Clifton: Well, York U Yeah, exactly. And we're YU. Right.

Marcie: That's what I learned when I first got here.

Clifton: One other quick thing that just fascinates me is the importance and the highlighting of well-being since the pandemic. That's one of the things I'm really happy about, is well-being is becoming much more of a focus of universities, institutions, the community at large. If you could just quickly talk about that, the highlight you've seen over the last couple of years since the pandemic. What are the benefits of the pandemic?

Marcie: Yeah, I think the pandemic has made us very isolated.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: especially students. We're kind of stuck at home with our parents, with our families. It's stressful. We had to find new ways of connecting and communicating with other people. We don't have a lot of opportunities to go outside and do all the social things that we used to do.

Clifton: Exactly, yes.

Marcie: And then mental health places across the province or across the country have just been inundated with people, like, just not feeling like themselves because this has been so scary and so confusing.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: And just so stressful.

Clifton: Exactly. That's how stress really connects to the well-being connection.

Clifton: Sort of hand in hand.

Marcie: A lot of anxiety, a lot of sadness, and a lot of people getting sick, and that is overwhelming.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: So, to have wellness, to really put it as a priority, is so wonderful because you don't have a lot of services.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: And so, I guess everything's just, there's tons and tons of waitlists. So, if we start to learn how to prioritize our wellness and our self-care and we learn how to manage all of that, right, then we will be able to get through this.

Clifton: And the optimum word is self-care. Right. As you said, all the waitlist going on and everything like this. But if you can take care of yourself and your family members and your loved ones around you, right, especially the younger people who are still transitioning and.

Marcie: Understanding this, what a world for them you are graduating high school, going to York, and you can't see anybody, you're remote, or people can't go to their graduations, all the great life graduations. So, it's important to, self-care and to be aware of that.

Clifton: Marcie, I could talk to you all day, but I just have one more question for you. In general, what do you think is important for students to know about wellness and about stress? What's the message you'd like to leave with them?

Marcie: I would like to leave that stress is normal, it's natural, and sometimes it can become unmanageable, and that's for everyone. So, I know some students come in and they think, I'm so stressed, why can't I handle this? Everybody else can.

Clifton: Right.

Marcie: And that's not the truth. Right. Some people can handle certain stress, but, not other stress. The thing is that it's normal and you're not alone, and there are a lot of resources out there to help you to learn how to manage. As I was saying before, I have a seven-year-old son, and he goes to school, and in kindergarten, he started to learn how to regulate his emotions.

Clifton: Oh, he did?

Marcie: Going from the red zone of anger to the green zone of happy. How do you do that? You breathe, you meditate. We never learned that. No, we never learned that.

Clifton: I never learned that either, so that's fascinating to learn.

Marcie: Right.

Clifton: But I know he's seven, but that sounds like something that's good for anybody of all ages.

Marcie: Exactly.

Clifton: In our environment.

Marcie: Yeah. So, like you were saying, check in with yourself and see where you're at with stress, and then implement those strategies that you've learned to try to help manage and cope. It won't be there forever.

Clifton: And one thing that sounds like it's very important is to recognize it in time before it's really too late. Because the school year goes by very quickly. We want everyone to be successful, not only within school, outside of school. So really, that self-recognition and self-care is really.

Marcie: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Clifton: Well, Marcy, it has been a pleasure talking to you.

Marcie: Thank you. This has been a lot of fun.

Clifton: I'm glad you enjoyed it. And hopefully, our listeners were educated, and definitely, check out all the resources that you mentioned.

Marcie: For sure, please.

Clifton: And especially Student counseling, Health and Wellbeing. We have to give them our plug, and most importantly, self-care.

Marcie: Yes, please.

Clifton: And my new favorite word again, Marcie.

Marcie: Adulting.

Clifton: Adulting it is. We are adulting to the York U community. Enjoy adulting because it's a normal part of life.

Marcie: That's right.

Clifton: That's Marcie Campbell, everybody. Again, a counselor with student counseling and health and well-being, and it's been a pleasure talking to you today.

What is your one tip for dealing with stress that would have helped you when you first started university?

Student: Probably trying not to focus on everything at once and just doing one thing at a time.

Student: Prioritize yourself when you have time off from classes. I'd say have some time for yourself. Take a chill day, and don't come to campus on your weekends.

Student: Making a detailed schedule. I make a schedule every week, and I follow it because if I don't have a schedule, I'm a mess and I'm lost.

Student: Time blocking calendar. Make sure every half hour you have a notebook and you're actually keeping on time. it's a must have for any university student.

Student: Really making friends, people who understand you, understand your struggles, because you can really feel alienated from your teachers and your parents. Building those connections and talking to your TAs, talking to your teachers, saying, I can't turn this assignment on time. I have a lot of things going on. What can I do?

Student: Definitely connecting with people and building community, making friends, connecting with peers, whether it be in your program or beyond, and finding common ground so that you have someone to refer to when you need that social being.

Clifton A Grant: Thanks again to my fellow students, for joining in on this important conversation. The more we connect, the more we will continue to learn from each other. I really want to thank our special guest today, Marcie Campbell from student counseling health and well-being. I really enjoyed our enlightening conversation. Thank you, Marcie, for being such a valuable resource. If you are a student at York University, you can connect with counselors like Marcie by visiting the Student counseling, health and wellbeing website at go.yorku.ca/schw . On the website, you can find details for walk in appointments, workshops, tips on improving well-being, and so much more. You can also find links to all the services Marcie mentioned in the show notes for this episode, along with more valuable information, tips, and resources. Visit our website at go.yorku.ca/wbpodcast. Click on the episode's link and look for episode number one, stress. This episode was co-produced by the well-being and YU podcast team. Our podcast coordinator is Harjot Suri. Our technical director is Karyn Popel, and I am your host, Clifton a Grant.

What does well being mean to you?

Student: I guess really just taking care of yourself and doing what you need and what's going to help you.

Student: I think well-being means being happy with just waking up in the morning and doing basic things. Basic human things, like just washing my face sometimes or even just brushing my teeth once a day. Just actually basic human needs.

Student: Well-being, for me is just like hanging out with myself, hanging out with friends, and not stressing about the deals of campus and stuff. Just kind of taking a time off to enjoy myself, walk around and relax, and, be able to just vibe and not worry about stuff.

Student: Well-being means being happy and enjoying your time.Yeah, just being happy and enjoying your time.

Student: That's a pretty big question. Means succeeding at your endeavors.

Student: Well-being is self-care in all forms, and oftentimes we think it's selfish to take time out for ourselves and we're forced into a productive lifestyle. But sometimes it's good to be lazy and it's good to care for yourself. Put yourself and your needs first.

Clifton: Thank you, That was great answer